SSI - Your choice for certification

SS Yongala Wreck - The boat is now an artificial reef with amazing marine life that are supersized compared to seeing them on the Great Barrier Reef. You cannot penetrate or touch the wreck as it is a grave site but this doesn’t take away from this amazing dive. Can have very strong currents.

The HMAS Brisbane was scuttled in July 2005 to create an artificial reef off Mooloolaba’s Sunshine Coast. The Queensland government created a Conservation Park around the wreck. This wreck is buzzing with beautiful marine life.

“Cook Island” is known as a Marine Reserve and is home to a wide variety of marine life and breeding seabirds. Cook Island provides a great opportunity to visit a protected area and witness why so many love this special place. Max depth here is 13m.

The name of this site comes form its many bommies that exist away and split off from the reef. It is located at the southern end of Hastings Reef and offers shallow waters, ideal for snorkeling and beginner divers.

An amazing dive site for the experienced diver! The Cod Hole is a small underwater cave located on the northern tip and opens up at approximately 15m deep, then slopes downwards to a depth of 21m.

The Needles is located on the southern end of Julian Rocks and consists of large bombies extending up to shallow depths. Currents and the shallow depths of 5-15m here mean there is plenty to see all year round.

Tweed River is a great location for beginner divers, Tweed heads is located off Coral Street, Tweed Heads. The dive site has easy access with concrete stairs down to the entry point. as well as a beach option for drift diving. Very Lovely Site. Vis is great in Winter and High Tides.

A deeper site for advanced divers, Shark Alley is a seasonal aggregation zone for endangered Grey Nurse (sand tiger) sharks. Being further out to sea, it is also a great place to see whales and other large pelagic marine life. Max depth is 28m with the reef rising to 12m on either side of the alley.

The perfect site for new divers, old divers, and snorkelers alike, with a protected shallow haven of 5-12m, this area is a very popular dive site.

The HMAS Perth II is a wreck 133 meters long sitting at a depth of 5-36m. This is a great dive for Open Water and higher level of divers. The average visibility is 10-15m. This is a boat dive only that is a 20min boat ride from the marina. There is a fixed mooring.

Sea lions are pinnipeds that are easily recognizable by their external ear flaps, cute, pointy nose, long, puffed up chest, and their ability to walk on all fours. Some of the more popular sea lion species are the California sea lion and the Steller sea lion. These fast, agile swimmers can reach up to 30 knots underwater and are very curious about the world around them. In fact, sea lions are not afraid of scuba divers in the least and have been known to buzz right around a group of divers, blow bubbles at them, and even chewing on their snorkels and fins.

A close relative to the manatee, dugongs are thought by some to be the motivation of seafaring tales of mermaids with their shapely bodies and fluked tails. In fact, they belong to the classification order Sirenia. Dugongs are the only strictly herbivorous marine mammals in the world and can be found all throughout the southern hemisphere, encompassing 40 countries and territories within the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

With females able to grow up to 7 meters long, the great white shark is the largest predatory fish on earth. It owes its name to its light, almost white, belly color, making it almost invisible to prey looking up from the seafloor. It’s body is similar in construction to a torpedo, making them very good, fast swimmers. In fact, they can reach speeds of up to 25 km/h and, like whales, have the ability to launch their entire body out of the water. Not many species prey on great whites, but if it is attacked, it can rolls its eyes inward for protection. Their eyes can absorb weak light, allowing them to see better in twilight than a cat.

Often times considered the most beautiful of all sea turtle species with it’s mottled, colorful shell, the hawksbill sea turtle is one of the smaller species. These graceful creatures are the most tropical of all the turtles and can be found mainly on coral reefs throughout the warmest areas of the world’s oceans. They use their narrow, pointed beak (hence their name) to eat an omnivorous diet, feeding on sponges, sea anemones, and jellyfish.

Also called the common seadragon, the weedy seadragon is one of the most unique looking in the seahorse family. With a very long thin snout and a slender trunk covered in bony, brightly colored rings, common seadragons differ from seahorses in that their thin tails cannot be used for gripping. Therefore, they are oftentimes found happily drifting along with the current like a piece of seaweed. Weedy seadragons are usually reddish brown in color with yellow spots. Their most unique feature is the small leaf-like appendages growing out from their body that resemble seaweed and help them to camouflage well.

Not to be confused with the freshwater angelfish of the Amazon Basin, marine angelfish are brilliantly colored and live on the warm, shallow water reefs of the Atlantic, Indian, and western Pacific Oceans. This beautiful family of reef fish consists of about 86 different species, the most well-known being queen, king, french, royal, and grey angelfish. With their large, laterally compressed bodies, small, up-turned mouths, and bright colors, they are hard to miss and a favorite sighting for most divers.

Not the best swimmers, Clownfish seek shelter in their anemone homes throughout most of the day. These distinctly colorful fish have developed a highly intricate and mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with their anemone homes, earning them the nickname: anemonefish. Due to this sophisticated relationship, they tend to stay within a maximum radius of four meters to their anemone host in order to hide quickly within its tentacles in case of danger. If you’re lucky enough dive with clownfish you could experience these cute little fish attempting to “attack“ you to defend their anemone.

Lionfish are native to Indo-Pacific waters and are usually found hiding under ledges or in shallow caves at depths between 2 and 60 meters. They are diurnal, meanings they hunt both during the day and at night but often stay hidden until sunset to avoid predators. Unfortunately, lionfish have become an invasive species in the western Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. In fact, despite their menacing beauty, lionfish have become a huge problem in the Caribbean as their population has spread tremendously in just a single decade. In fact, the Science Channel has claimed they are “one of the most aggressively invasive species on the planet.” These flashy predators are considered fairly aggressive and harmful to humans so take caution when diving with lionfish and keep a safe distance.